Climate Change Risks Are Real, Warn Economists and Scientists

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For the sake of future public health and safety, the debate
surrounding climate change must shift from whether or not it is
happening to what people can do to mitigate the risks associated
with it, according to a team of scientists who recently launched
a new initiative to increase public engagement in climate change
action.

Thirteen of the country's leading climate change researchers
representing a range of scientific fields — including
oceanography, ecology, public health, and others — have worked
together to write a short report called "What We Know" and launch
an interactive website
to help demystify aspects of climate change that scientists
generally agree upon as fact, such as that climate change is
definitively happening and that it is caused by humans.

The team — spearheaded by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general
scientific society — has partnered with strategic communications
groups to improve public engagement in climate action by holding
meetings and media events that focus on the risks associated with
climate change and encourage people to start seriously
considering risk management plans for hazards such as imminent
sea level rise and food shortages. [ The
Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted ]

The team hopes their wide array of expertise, representing many
different fields of science, will help them make their case with
the public.

"It is a bit unusual to have a collective group of people with
these perspectives on climate science and expertise that ranges
from the tropics to the Arctic, from the bottom of the ocean to
the top of the atmosphere," team member James McCarthy, a
biological oceanographer at Harvard University, told Live Science
prior to a press briefing about the new initiative. "It is
unusual to bring together so many different perspectives."

The team acknowledges that other
similar climate initiatives have tried and largely failed to
engage the public in the past, but hopes that their
non-governmental affiliations and collective expertise will make
a stronger impression than previous attempts have.

"From my perspective, you can't say this message enough times and
in enough different ways before hoping to get some effects," team
member Alan Leshner, CEO of AAAS, said during the press briefing.

The scientists have also consulted with economists to try to
develop ways of creating financial incentives to motivate people
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and take action against
climate change.

"There are strong incentives to produce emissions," Bob
Litterman, an economist with the New York City-based asset
management firm Kepos Captial, said during the press briefing.
"The subsidies to fossil fuel consumption globally dwarfs the
incentives to reduce emissions. And that is just completely
irrational. So we have to develop a global policy and that
requires a close collaboration between scientists and economists
moving forward."

The team has considered holding private hearings with policy
makers, but has not yet solidified plans to do so.